I do not buy Armstrong Williams’s argument that black male students fail because of society’s and teachers’ low expectations of their academic performance.
Williams compares society’s expectations of athletic and academic performance and finds that black male students succeed at athletics because society expects them to excel. This expectation encourages them to perfect their athletic abilities. “However, unlike coaches, teachers don’t admonish black males; they accept their failure and even reward it by passing them on to the next grade.”
I do not think that we can simply attribute low test scores among black male students to social conditioning, as Williams does. That would be the easy way out. It would be better to ask why some students, including black males, choose to invest their time and energy in academic pursuits.
